Goals aside by Japan...were you people happy with their play overall? Sounds like counters were the only way you generated anything.
Man on man Germany is really borderline second tier right now in Europe but it's the host country and that should give them an edge. I'd still think of them as a contender.
I'm watching the domestic broadcast here, thinking it's live (5 am!) then pop on here and get the result. URGHHHHH!
I second you. Japan gained its much-needed confidence in offense by scoring first, and got a good lesson in NOT letting their guard down and that they need to work more on defending against set-plays. This was a lesson at a very reasonable price - imagine if this happenned against Croatia or Australia! A very fruitful friendly game for Japan. Thank you Germany, although I wish Kaji wasn't injured.
It works both ways too. It is a much-needed wake up call for Germany. We now know NOT to play Nowotny and Mertesacker together and NOT to play Schneider at WB. Thanks Nippon.
Hmm, did I make it sound like it? For the 1st half yes, Japan relied somewhat heavily on counterattacks. But in the 2nd half it was more like a straight-on face-to-face offense and defense for both sides. Even then, I must say I got the impression that Germany was pressing (just slightly) even in the 2nd half. But I consider this an effective, smart way for Japan to fight. Although Japan was arguably faster than Germany (this is always debatable, so don't bite me ), they don't have the techniques or physiques Germans do. So they went for the tactic that works the best, and this is the result.
It was a very good performance by japan! Congratulations, you are already in a great form! Interesting that the physical strength is good enough to run all over the pitch for 90 minutes in spite of the hard training weeks! In contrast to that the germans were very tired from the training, that was obviously
Schweinsteiger who assisted and scored Germany's goals should have collected two yellows way before that for his tackles on Kaji and Komano. I have to thank him though if this means Komano will start in place of Kaji at the cup.
Just saw the highlites, all 4 goals were classy. It must have been a great game. I think Japanese got over-powered in their own box for the goals they gave up. Takahara's goals were really nice, but the second goal was defense's fault- he had too much space on top of the box, once he made the turn, he was one-on-one with the goalie.
there was an unintentional handball near the end but it was well outside of the box. unless you are talking about when the ball hit Tsuboi's arm while he was being pulled by a German in the box.
Nobody really rates them...except for Ballack their players are far from impressive. But Germans do have a tendency to, no matter what the circumstances, always get some kind of result. Even with the ************ style they play. They did the same against us. We were 2-0 up until the 70th minute, then out of nothing scored 2 goals. And in the end we were lucky not to lose 2-3 or 2-4. I saw the last 30 minutes and think Japan was just unlucky not to win.
Well, the article sounded like "Germany almost embarassed itself after Japan took advantage of Germany's experiment holes". Then again if you read Japan's team description in that website you can see how Japan is viewed by BBC (not necessarily by Europeans, mind you). After many predicted Germany's victory and Japan actually looked quite strong, I'm in good enough mood for this not to bother me.